The British Sunday Times newspaper has published its first Rich List for sports stars and with seven of the top ten coming from F1, it appears that it is still a very lucrative business despite the credit crunch.

Johnny Dumfries, a former Lotus team mate of Ayrton Senna and heir to one of Scotland’s oldest aristocratic families, is the best placed motor racing personality in third ahead of former Ferrari driver Eddie Irvine (£80million), 1979 F1 champion Jody Scheckter (£60million), who is in because he lives in the UK and Prodrive boss Dave Richards (£58million)

David Coulthard (£50million), Nigel Mansell (£50million) are also in the top ten along with Jenson Button (£43million), who is the best placed active driver.

It’s a bit of a bizarre list as there is no sign of multi-billionaire Bernie Ecclestone, who was an active team boss in the 1970s and 80s before becoming the sport’s commercial guru.

Wigan Athletic football team owner Dave Whelan (£190million), who made most of his money from a sports retail business is top of the list. Footballer David Beckham (£125million) and boxer Lennox Lewis (£95million) were the only non-motorsport personalities to make the top ten.

Dr Philip Beresford, compiler of the list, said: “Motor racing has several factors that combine to make its stars highly rewarded.

“There are big, often global television audiences and vast commercial interests at stake. And unlike football, you only need to pay one or two drivers per team – not 11 or more. For the best drivers that can make salaries and sponsorships huge.”

Formula 1 was well represented in the Young Sport Rich List, which includes athletes aged 30 and under, with Button coming out on top ahead of footballer Michael Owen (£40million) and McLaren team-mate Lewis Hamilton (£35million).

Because there are so many well paid footballers they feature strongly, but there are warnings today from Chris Powell, the president of the Professional Footballers’ Association, that the high level of wages for players cannot continue amid pressure from the competition authorities in the UK to make the price of SKY’s Sports TV package cheaper.

In F1, the picture is different as most of the TV deals are with free to air channels. Many are feeling the pinch from the decline in TV advertising revenues, but are still willing to pay a large fee for the F1 rights.

Meanwhile the Resource Restriction Agreement is set to greatly reduce the cost of competing for teams, and there was evidence last season of teams’ attempting to keep driver salaries under control by refusing to pay premiums when drivers were being traded ahead of the 2010 season.

Whether that stance can remain when most of the other ways a top team can spend money to stay ahead have been reduced, remains to be seen. If the differences between the cars is reduced, then it could be that the drivers will be even more highly rewarded in future.

It's certainly not as easy at it looks on the television. The journey is long, arduous and few make it to the top. And not all that do manage to stay at the top.

Good to see Nigel in the Top 10. Read his biography and you'll understand why talent alone is not enough. For sure the comedy mustache and Brummie accent didn't help. In reality there was a very deep rooted commitment and perseverance required, some would call it clutching at straws. Colin Chapman and Enzo both saw his potential and for sure Nigel rightfully earned his moniker 'il leone'.

Jenson and Lewis recently gave an glimpse of the dedication required not just by the wannabe F1 driver but family and friends also. If you think that stars of F1 work only 2 hours every other weekend think again.

Remember, there are only a select number of active drivers whereas the number of professional footballers globally wouldn't fit into the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

Thankfully, in this modern era safety has improved dramatically. There are not many sports that have had a posthumous World Champion. Ask Niki Lauda whether he feels he deserves the riches earned from his career.

That is perhaps something David Beckhams of the world would find it hard to relate to.

He always seemed to be willing to tow the company line, until after his first victory. He made his "being hit on the head with a cricket bat" comment after he left Ferrari, which the media quoted out of context. He never said a great deal about Ferrari that was negative. As Schumacher pointed out in 1999, being no. 2 at Ferrari was better than being no.1 at most other teams. Irvine certainly would never have become the highest-paid employee of the Ford Motor Co without his Ferrari tenure, so all-in-all he did well out of his time at Ferrari.

I don't beleive Eddie was a millionaire before F1 - he had a pretty working class upbringing and got into the property game after his f1 career was over. Glad to see he's doing alright for himself still!

I have to disagree with you. Most of the top drivers today have come from working-class backgrounds. Fernando Alonso, Lewis Hamilton, Sebastian Vettel, Robert Kubica, and Michael Schumacher: all are from very very normal households.

Sure, safety is much, much improved over the years, but that threat is still there. Gotta count for something.

As for stick and ball sports, word got out how much the owners were making, and the players unionized and demanded and got a nice percentage of the profits. (This is horribly simplified, but the general idea works). It used to be a secret what owners were making; as recently as the 1960's baseball players might make $10-$12,000 a year, and have to drive a cab in the off-season. "Free agency" lawsuits broke that open in baseball, and other sports soon followed.

Teams pay what they want to for a driver, the better ones are naturally more expensive, QED.

On a happier note, it is now raining in Sunny Spain, with any luck the drizzle will hold on all week and they will have to really earn the money in Manuel's hometown. Hopefully we may get treated to another display of Mr Hamiltons rather excellent wet Weather racing skills.

F1 is a highly professional job where only a handful are chosen. The best part is you don't have to be a WDC and still be millionaires. But you can lose millions too before arriving in F1. God knows how many were left broke.

On a different note, I've been wondering lately... Why don't the teams actually patent their technological innovations? It's common practice in quite a few industries but I've never heard of anyone patenting any F1 technology. I'm pretty sure much of it would be though. A patent on a system with an interruptible airduct through the cockpit to disrupt the airflow over the upper rear downforce generating aerodynamical element anyone?

I've wondered this often too. If McLaren had patented the Carbon Chasis back in the day, they'd have dominated racing every since! Is there something in the 'terms and conditions' of them being allowed to race?

"Ferrari’s Vairano test was part of the four days of aerodynamic testing allowed in the testing agreement, as defined by the 12 Formula One teams" - from the official F1 site.

It was straight-line testing (perfect for an f-duct test or whatever it's called), which all the teams can do if they wish, albeit restricted to a certain number of days... I think it's that or wind-tunnel testing, upto a max of 4 days. But someone with more insight or info should\will confirm that... I hope.

l believe the like of lewis hamilton is richer than the said 35m,if u take into account his endorsement from reebok,santander,vodafone,johnnie walker.e.t.c.also what about ron and bennie,sir frank,eddie jordan.

Regarding comments about personalities that aren't on the list. You only get entered in it if you bring your accounts forward proving your wealth. I suppose some don't feel the need to broadcast their numbers on the world!

It's a shame that it truly is a sport for a privileged few. I love F1, but I must admit at times the F1 environment doesn't sit well with me.

OK I don't want to get too deep here, but are F1 people GOOD people? Are they people we should idolise? It seems so many are more interested in wealth and power than doing anything constructive for humanity. The thing is, with their riches and their profile, they really COULD do something.

It's also sad that a typical kid from a typical family in England or Australia is going to struggle to even get to an F1 race. They might love the sport, might have followed it for years, but it's a sport for the upper class. Kids - please watch on TV but just so you know, if you're not rich Bernie doesn't want you at an F1 race.

James, I can only think that some days you must think you have the best job in the world; and others, you must wonder if there's something beyond the shallow, materialistic and greedy world of F1.

It's funny if you think about it. Those who drive racing cars get paid like 1million per week and those who run a country get paid like less than 100,000 a year. I am talking about British PM of course.